Room With a View
by RowenaR
Summary: There's more to Pete than just his pop culture allusions and his goofing off, and once in a while that catches up with him. Tag to 'Burnout', slightly Pete/Myka... if you squint.


**Author:** RowenaR

**Rating:** K+

**Category:** friendship

**Disclaimer:** Warehouse 13 is not mine (although I honestly wish I had their writing genius... Mata Hari's stockings? That was just... oh, you know) and I'm not making money with it and why am I even writing this, seeing as disclaimers have no legal effect whatsoever anyway?

**Summary: **There's more to Pete than just his pop culture allusions and his goofing off, and once in a while that catches up with him.

**A/N: **Virgin fic in this fandom and I know I'm pretty late to the party with a Burnout episode tag but I just couldn't get Carey's "Room with a View " out of my head after watching it, had to write the story and then real life caught up with my beta, **mac** (who even betaes stories for fandoms she has no clue about which continues to amaze me) so it took a while for this little story to see the light of day. I hope that there are still some people who read and like it.

Anyway, as always: Not a native speaker, so please excuse any weird grammatical constructions, run-ons and typos. Feedback will earn you a cookie, flames will roast my marshmellows.

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**Room With a View**

"_And t__hey say it never rains in L.A. County  
but it gets cold enough to wish you had a few  
and he laughs tonight and says 'I finally found me  
the room with a view, how about you?'"_

_Tony Carey, "Room With a View"_

From his seat in the car, he can see Rebecca walking out of the Warehouse, never looking back and for a moment he wants to call her back and ask her if she needs a ride into town but something… keeps him from doing it. Maybe it's something in her stature, or in the way she puts one foot in front of the other. Elegantly, yes, but with a certain determination that tells him she never plans on coming back here again and she doesn't want to see either of them again.

And of course, who'd hold it against her, after all she went through so many years ago and again now? He's not sure if he can imagine what it must have felt like to her, to lose her partner like that… twice. Yes, he lost his father when he was still a kid… but at least he always knew what had happened and even though he still sometimes agonizes over the question if there was anything – just _anything_ – he could have done to prevent it, he still had at least _some_ kind of closure; going to the funeral, saying his last goodbyes.

But Rebecca? She must have waited for decades for her partner to return; sad and maybe even bitter that he always chose the job over her and that the job took him from her… but always with that treacherous little glimmer of hope that maybe, _maybe_ he'd return one day. Damn, that must have been horrible. And certainly something _he_ doesn't want to have to go through.

At that thought… something… _touches_ his mind, just for a very short moment; a bit like one of his vibes but not quite. A little disconcerted, he throws a look back to the front of the Warehouse and just for a moment… it feels like it's… crouching there, just _waiting_ for him to come back so it can devour… nah, that's stupid. The Warehouse might house strange stuff and yeah, some artifacts really do seem to have a will of their own… but the _Warehouse_ itself is not an artifact, right? Right?

Oh well, maybe he'll ask Artie about that one day. Right now, though… he's attributing his growing wish to be away from the Warehouse to the minor fact that he was nearly electrocuted today. So… it would be nice if Myka could just… oh, there she is.

She walks up to the car and he wonders if he's just imagining it or if her step is really just a little slower and that one look back towards the Warehouse… was that wary? Thoughtful? He can't quite tell from the distance and he's about to call her on it when she opens the door and gets in but… keeps it to himself.

To him it seems like she's somewhere else, not quite there… deep in thought, but not in that usual analytical way of hers, when she's contemplating a case. Or like when she's completely immersed herself in a book – figuratively speaking, not artifact-y speaking, thank you very much… no, it's something else. Something… must have happened between when he left her with Rebecca in Secord's room and when she came out of the Warehouse.

He's about to make a quip or something; anything really, just to try and lift the heavy blanket of the strange silence that fell on them when Myka entered the car. But in the end… it's _Myka_ who starts talking again first. From the corners of his eyes he can see her bite her lip and then she says, "Pete… do you think…" but stops there, never completing the sentence.

And because he's not good with this kind of thing, he tries to keep his tone light as he replies, "Yeah, sometimes I actually do." Expecting a shove to his shoulder or at least an exasperated sigh he's surprised that nothing ever comes. Okay… "Anyway… what is it?" Maybe she'll now tell him what happened when he'd been outside…

"Nothing, I just… you know." Or maybe _not_. This is really weird… but since he's not _really_ in a talking mood today – and mostly because by now he has learned to read her well enough to recognize when she wants to talk and when she doesn't – he just shrugs.

"Yeah, guess I do." And with that… there's silence again and it starts to dawn on him… that Myka's strange thoughtfulness has something to with… _Rebecca_. Or at least with Rebecca and Selcord and what they'd both been through… dammit, he shouldn't have left her alone in that room.

But it had just been too reminiscent of his own room and he hadn't really wanted to think about the fact that he'd been very close to becoming a boxed memory – in the form of his room at Leena's, that is – and that's something he really hadn't wanted to think about at that moment. Or ever again.

Now, though, he wonders how _Myka_ must have felt, in that room, with the former partner and lover of Selcord… Myka who lost a partner – and lover, or so it had been rumored – not that long ago, who still won't talk about it to him… and who almost lost another partner as well today.

Ah, _fuck_. He feels like an ass now, not considering what that might have done to her. Yeah, so he'd made sure she was okay after the ordeal – for some strange reason, that had been much more important than his own well-being at the time – but he'd not really considered that there was more to it. Now, he wants to… he wants to apologize for not going into that room with her, wants to hug her… knowing full well she'd probably kick his ass if he so much as tried to.

They're close to Leena's now… and he makes a silent promise to Myka: he _will_ apologize for leaving her alone with Rebecca and he'll probably even try to hug her… but most of all, he'll make sure that she'll never have to stand in his room, boxed in the Warehouse, and wonder what happened, if she could have prevented it… if the job had been more important to him than her.

Huh, he wonders, where did _that_ just come from? But… yeah, maybe not dwell on it. It's probably just his brain jumbled all up by the case and the almost death by electrocution. Nah… it's nothing.

Trying to shake off the thought of how important Myka is to him, he parks the car and they get out of it. They walk over to the house in silence but he feels like he needs to do _something_ to lift her spirits. He briefly considers letting her hit him over the head with all that nerd stuff she knows. But in the end… when they stand in front of the B&B's door… he just smiles for a moment and says, "Hey, uh… Myka?"

She looks a little like a deer in headlights, as if she'd been somewhere else again. "Yeah?"

There's another smile on his face, intended to make that somehow sad look in her eyes go away and he simply says, "Thanks for saving my life today."

Making an attempt to speak, she opens her mouth… but closes it again, as if she was about to deny that it was her who'd saved him from the spine or that she'd almost screwed up because she'd hesitated with the cables… but in the end… she just smiles a little awkwardly and replies, "Anytime, Pete. Anytime."

Well… a smile is a smile and there's been enough seriousness for today, so he takes it there'll be another day for the talking. Tonight, though… tonight he knows something far better. "You know… I could really do with some cookies now."

"Yeah," she says and this time the little crooked grin looks much more genuine, "I bet you could."

Finally, they open the door to Leena's and inside, they're greeted by a happily blazing fire in the fireplace and the cozy couch and the books in the common room… and cookies on the table. Ah… it's good to be home.


End file.
